Many companies and organizations are continuing to look for ways to reduce their internal cost of operations and overhead. Implementing LEAN manufacturing principles has become a very important concept and one that may help improve overall efficiency of operations, directly impacting bottom line results. This blog is written for those organizations.

LEAN

08/07/2014

In the first post related to this topic, we covered the fact that there is no turn key apporach to predictive maintenance and that before implementing a predictive maintenance program, you have to pick the right assets to have in the program. Now we will cover points three and four.

3. The overwhelming goal is to maintain optimally

‘Overmaintaining' can really be as bad as too little maintenance. With complex machinery, things go wrong. We have to tear equipment down from time to time, re-inspect, and figure out what went wrong. Sometimes things don't always go back together as planned. The easy answer would be to overmaintain.

The payback in preventive maintenance is not just trying to avoid failure; it is also trying to avoid overmaintenance, especially from a cost perspective.

4. Recognize the relationship between predictive maintenance and sustainability performance

Predictive maintenance and sustainability have inextricable ties. So, if your predictive maintenance program is in its infancy and your organization has (or plans to implement) a sustainability program, begin by tying these two operational and strategic objectives together.

Asset performance will ultimately have a bearing on overall sustainability performance. For example, if a specific piece of equipment is undermaintained and using more energy, well, that will impact overall energy usage directly. If a few vehicles in your fleet haven't been maintained properly and have poor emissions as a result, guess what that factors directly into overall emissions and asset safety KPIs when it comes to sustainability reporting and overall sustainability performance.

But for a moment forget about the role of a sustainability program for sustainability's sake. The whole point of sustainability from a business/stakeholder perspective is that as we and our assets consume excess energy and water and generate excess emissions and waste, well, we pay for that. We don't want to simply manage these impacts because they are bad for the worldwhile that is a noble intent. We want to reduce these impacts simply because it is bad for business to be wasteful. And in the ongoing goal of achieving operational excellence by mitigating consumption and waste, what better a way to start than by implementing predictive maintenance programs to operate profitably.

This post was first seen on MFRTECH weekly newsletter at www.mfrtech.com. To learn more about MFRTECH, please visit the website provided. To learn more about LEAN and its many applications, please feel free to contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury.

07/31/2014

It is not a commonly drawn linkage, but the correlation between how we manage our assets and overall sustainability metrics could not be clearer.

However, it's one thing to want a predictive maintenance model, and quite another thing to actually implement it in a manufacturing environment. At times it can seem overwhelming. We have so much data to draw on, and between the rise of Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT), it can be overwhelming to consider how to achieve true predictive maintenance, above and beyond the preventive maintenance we widely practice.

With that, let's look at four key things we can do as we strive to implement a predictive maintenance approach across our organization, and at the same timein the spirit of our previous messageconsider how these ideas correlate to overall sustainability performance.

1. There is no turnkey solution you can buy

When we look at a lot of other enterprise software solutions, be it Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS) or Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM), we have a lot of existing best practices and very defined and widely adopted solutions we can implement and apply to our existing processes. Sure, we often need to make a tweak here, a customization there, but all told, a lot of these solutions speak to long-standing and widely adopted management standards and best practices.

It's not so much the case for predictive maintenance. At this point we can't seek out a vendor, implement a solution, and expect that voila somehow we'll have an effective predictive maintenance model across our enterprise. Every manufacturing organization is so unique from the specifics of individual fixed assets to the complexities of machine-to-machine interactions that there's no template we can simply apply and say, here, this is predictive maintenance.'

That said, it is a very achievable journey to get there. At the core of many such systems we see today is Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) software that serves as the main enterprise application to manage maintenance activities. Then add-on applications such as those provided by companies like Meridium and Ivaraare used to develop the analytics. These are not turnkey solutions, but they are examples of predictive maintenance models and a knowledge base that can be adapted to specific assets over time.

2. Pick the right assets

There are essentially three categories of maintenance in manufacturing: break-fix (reactive), preventive, and predictive. Using the three classes of maintenance mentioned can be a great way to define predictive maintenance priorities. Look around your manufacturing environments and consider which equipment you would treat on a reactive basis, as opposed to a preventive or predictive basis.

We have seen companies come in and try to provide the connective tissue between asset performance and preventive maintenance, but as we say, we are still a long way from any sort of turnkey solution to preventive maintenance. Such solutions may provide a checklist that you can map against your own specific requirements, but you really have to start from ground zero, especially if you have no predictive maintenance program in place.

So, start by categorizing your assets according to the three categories mentioned. Begin with the assets that would benefit best from a predictive maintenance approach. These are the ones you will want to start with, especially if you are trying to demonstrate quick wins with senior management, from whom you may require endorsement for a more comprehensive predictive maintenance program.

In the next post, we will cover points three and four. Stay tuned....

This post was first seen on MFRTECH weekly newsletter at www.mfrtech.com. To learn more about MFRTECH, please visit the website provided. To learn more about LEAN and its many applications, please feel free to contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury.

07/03/2014

If you’ve engaged in any facet of lean, then you’ve experienced what I call the “leaky bucket syndrome.” This is the point at which, after several lean initiatives, there appear to be holes or roadblocks to the full adoption and acceptance of lean. This may take any of the following forms:

Unfinished actions following Kaizen or other events.

A 5S program that does not appear to be fully accepted or adopted by employees.

Ongoing doubts from management around the value of lean.

Challenging personalities still voicing their concerns over the “real intent” of lean.

As you progress, these types of challenges will invariably occur and often reach a point at which the champion or sponsor for lean feels like he or she is trying to plug a leaky bucket. This is the point at which most give up on lean, which is fine if you’re unwilling to stay the course. However, there are several strategies that can move you beyond the leaky bucket syndrome and increase confidence and value in lean integration.

Here are four that work extremely well at plugging the perceived holes:

Commitment Over Compliance

I’ve found it a greater challenge to attain commitment and confidence from senior management than employees during lean adoption. In most companies, senior management does as they are asked, although sometimes grudgingly. If they don’t recognize what lean can do for them, you will be hard pressed to get their full commitment. To avoid the leaky bucket syndrome, you must have the full commitment of senior management; there is no way around it. Rather than hold senior managers to new expectations, get them involved as champions in lean initiatives. Better yet, hold kaizen events that serve to improve the outcomes of existing processes that affect senior management, such as employee performance management or employee objective setting.

Speed Up, Don’t Slow Down

It might sound counterintuitive, but challenges arise during any full-scale change initiative, which is what lean really represents. This does not mean it’s time to slow down; in fact, it means the exact opposite. Slowing down momentum or initiatives only serves to confirm to others that things aren’t going as you planned. With the proper champions and change agents in place, issues or concerns are a signal to keep going, as these are signs that the change is taking root. Don’t slow down, speed up.

Celebrate Being Human

I’ve made a few mistakes in my time. Haven’t you? Mistakes only serve to confirm that we are human, and they offer an opportunity to learn. Any challenges you might experience in lean are signs that this is a journey, and as such you should be forthright about what has gone well and what has not gone well. Celebrating your successes is important, but celebrating being human and learning from mistakes is even more critical. If you try to present only roses to employees, you will eventually get a poke from a thorn.

What’s Your Strategy?

Are you fully integrating lean into all areas of your business? Approaches like Hoshin Kanri, for example, support a robust and effective means to formulate and implement a business strategy. If lean is to be adopted into your organization, are you considering all areas of integration? There is nothing worse than introducing a strategy, for example, that contradicts the empowerment and improvement you are targeting through lean. Worse yet, following a methodology that is “not value-based” goes against the objectives you are trying to achieve in lean, doesn’t it?

If you think lean has become a leaky bucket, don’t panic. Above all, do not give up, as this is a natural occurrence when initiating transformational change. Just consider the few simple tips above and you will find continued and sustained improvement, which ultimately is the intent of lean.

The above post was first reviewed in the AME Target Online Newsletter. The post was written by Shawn Casemore. Mr. Casemore is the president and founder of Casemore and Company, Incorporated, a management consultancy helping organizations globally to improve organizational performance and build financial strength. Learn more at www.casemoreandco.com or follow Casemore on Twitter @ShawnCasemore.

You can also learn more about LEAN by contacting the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury, LLP.

04/10/2014

This post was written by Shawn Casemore. Mr. Casemore is the president and founder of Casemore & Co., Incorporated, a management consultancy helping organizations globally to improve organizational performance and build financial strength. Learn more at www.casemoreandco.com or follow Casemore on Twitter @ShawnCasemore.

Introducing (and sustaining) lean requires a commitment, the road to which is full of highs and lows. The highs are easy to take, but the lows challenge our intentions. It’s not a mission for the faint of heart. Anyone who suggests otherwise is either not considering management of the “human” aspect of introducing lean, or they’re completely oblivious to dealing with the impact of change.

Each lean introduction or implementation that I’m involved in results in waves. There are times when the desired results and the engagement level of employees is high; there are times when results achieved fall short of expectations or the level of employee engagement is not as strong as desired.

Lean is a process; it’s not an instantaneous result. The journey can wander from the intended route, but it’s not the route so much as the destination that counts. More importantly, how we respond to setbacks can determine the velocity with which we arrive at the destination.

There are several ways to remain fervent during the introduction of lean when results may not be as targeted as you intended. Here are three:

Evolution not a revolution

Lean is about recognizable incremental change. Too often I’ve found that the very companies that engage in lean are seeking an overnight success. The chances of this happening are slim. Olympic athletes takes years, if not decades, to reach the top of their games; they recognize the commitment and hard work required to reach the top, and they ride the roller coaster of success versus failure in pursuit of improving performance. Achieving a lean culture is an evolution, not an instantaneous revolution. You’re turning a ship, not a Honda Civic.

Commitment starts with objectives

Who sets your lean objectives? If employees aren’t involved in identifying and setting the objectives to be achieved as a result of a lean initiative, they won’t be committed to achieving the outcome. Engagement requires multidimensional involvement. If you involve me in fixing a problem, then I’m solving your problem; if you involve me in identifying the problem, then I’m solving our problem.

The three Vs of progress

To sustain interest in continuing a lean journey, progress must be demonstrated on a multidimensional level. Telling me we are doing great is exciting the first time, but it quickly loses its impact. Progress toward mutually agreed upon objectives must be communicated verbally, visually and viscerally.

Discuss progress at every opportunity.

Prominently display results against targets.

Make a relevant connection for employees.

By applying this multidimensional approach to communicating progress, employee engagement can be sustained.

Remember there’s a reason they call it a lean “journey.” There will be ups and downs, but how you engage, respond and communicate with employees will determine whether you arrive at your intended destination or not.

04/03/2014

The following post was first seen on the Change Management Associates March 2014 Newsletter. The post was written by Drew Locher, Managing Director. Mr. Locher can be reached at www.cma4results.com or by telephone at 1-866-235-8051.

I have spoken to several groups and worked with numerous companies in recent months. I always ask people about previous exposure to particular Lean concepts. It is part of 'knowing one's audience'. I have been surprised by the lack of awareness in the concepts and methodologies of Training Within Industries (TWI). I shared my experience with several colleagues. They too lamented about the lack of awareness and understanding of what has been described as 'the foundation of Lean'. How could this be? Has TWI been overlooked among the 'tools' of 5S, Pull/Kanban and others? The origins of TWI date back to WWII (and even further). The seemingly simple and time tested methodologies should be part of every leaders 'toolbox'. It is why they are introduced in our 'Lean Leadership' program. There are four methodologies, often referred to as 'the J's'. These are: Job Instruction (JI), Job Methods (JM), Job Relations (JR), and Job Safety (JS).

"We can't find good help" is a frequent comment that I hear in my travels. I typically respond by asking several questions about the skills and knowledge the organization is looking for, as well as its approach to training. The responses usually involve poorly defined descriptions of the work for which they are looking for people to perform, and a classic approach to training. Job Instruction (JI) provides a methodology to develop the 'script' for training, called a Job Breakdown Sheet. Far different than detailed procedures that are often used during the training of new team members, the Job Breakdown Sheet identifies the important steps that advance the work. Details on how to perform an important step are provided when they rise to the level of a 'key point'. For every key point, a 'why' is provided that reinforces the learning and understanding. Once the 'script' has been developed, the JI teaching process can be effectively practiced.

The four step JI methodology makes use of proven instruction techniques including multiple cycles of learning and repetition. When practiced properly it avoids a common pitfall of most teaching - the 'fire hydrant' approach. JI purposely breaks down the content in a way that is more readily absorbable by the 'student'. The mantra of JI is 'if the worker did not learn, the instructor hasn't taught'. JI has proven to reduce the typical 'learning curve' by as much as 75%.

Job Methods (JM) is practical plan to examine and improve any process by making the best use of the people, equipment and materials now available. Lean Enterprises ask all members to practice 'Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)'. Well, JM provides a step-by-step approach to do just that on a regular, even daily basis. The steps involve; breaking down the current method, questioning every detail, developing the new method, and applying the new method. Of course, JI can then be used to teach the new method to other team members.

A leader gets results through people, and people must be treated as individuals. This is the key tenet of Job Relations (JR). JR provides the foundations for good relations. These include; letting each team member know how he/she is getting along, giving credit when due, communicating upcoming changes, and making use of each person's ability. In addition, JR provides a four-step approach to handling a personnel problem in an effective way.

Finally, there is Job Safety (JS). The meaning of safety is to consider measures and take action before a safety incident occurs. It is not about 'after action' reporting. JS provides a four-step methodology to; spot the causes of danger, decide on countermeasures, enforce countermeasures, and check results. The mantra of JS is 'a perfect safety record is not a record of fate, but a record of the efforts of leaders'. Of course JR can be used if behavioral resistance is encountered.

Too often a person is placed in a front-line leadership role, and the organization does not properly equip them with the skills and tools to be successful. As straightforward as the J's may seem, they require deliberate and frequent practice before a leader fully develops the associated skills. The good news is that there are excellent resources now available. The TWI Institute provides education, training and certification in all four J's with resources in 31 countries on 6 continents. The annual TWI Summit will be in Nashville TN May 7-9, 2014. The 'TWI Workbook: Essential Skills for Supervisors' is an excellent and easy to read reference on the subject.

I encourage all of you who have never heard of TWI to close an important knowledge 'gap'. For those of you who have been exposed to the concepts, I suggest that you dive more deeply into the subject and be sure to put all of the techniques into practice in your organizations. By doing so you will be laying a solid foundation upon which an effective Lean Management System can be built.

03/06/2014

This post was first reviewed in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence – Target Online Newsletter. The post was written by Shawn Casemore, President of Founder of Casemore and Company, in Ontario, Canada. Shawn can be contacted at www.casemoreandco.com.

Over a year ago, I toured a facility that had undergone what the executives called “a lean transformation.” The organization had improved productivity numbers after introducing a series of kaizen events. Downtime and changeover time had been reduced, and product flow was considered to be optimum.

During the tour, I walked down the aisle of one of their large presses and found a significant oil leak pooling on the floor. When I asked an employee what was causing the leak, he responded that it had been around for years. When I entered the product testing area, it was difficult to assess where one product and its testing documents ended and another began. Tabletops were littered with documents. In the shipping department, water seeped in under several shipping doors, gathering in slippery pools on the floor, the result of overhead doors being either broken or dismantled.

If these were the signs of a lean transformation, then what this organization needed was a lean apocalypse.

In speaking with the lean coordinator and general manager for the site, he admitted that although the kaizen events had improved process efficiency, it had not shifted culture necessary to support continuous improvement.

I’ve heard similar comments from other business owners and executives, and I’ve found (not surprisingly) that the use of kaizen events appears to be on the decline. From my analysis, there appear to be a few simple reasons for this trend:

The misperception that a kaizen event is the start and end of a continuous improvement journey

Failure to remain agile with the ongoing management of changes associated with the kaizen event

Loss of focus on the key objectives that precipitated the kaizen event in the first place

The cultural perceptions that results achieved during a kaizen event are not sustainable

A desire to handle kaizen events 100 percent in-house rather than engage outside resources for support

Notice a trend here? It’s not the approach to how the Kaizen is introduced or handled; it’s how the results are sustained. It doesn’t matter what type of initiative you undertake, success resides in the follow-up. Heck, we can all become engaged for a day or so, but it takes longer to formulate new habits.

If you are embarking on, or have embarked upon, a lean journey incorporating kaizen events and you want to achieve a cultural shift that supports continuous improvement, then consider including the following to ensure sustained momentum:

Reconvene the kaizen team at 30, 60 and 90 days following the events to review outstanding actions and new ideas or challenges that have arisen during the early stages of change.

Ensure that front-line managers affected by or included in the Kaizen are coached for a period of three months following the event to ensure they fully embrace the new ways of doing business, and to support their efforts to continue to engage employees involved or affected by the change.

Introduce simple, yet effective, employee suggestion programs to capture new employee ideas that begin to surface. Most importantly, empower an employee board to review and act upon ideas that support improvement, ensuring that every idea submitted receives a quantitative or qualitative response within 30 days.

Capturing the value that a kaizen event can produce is critical to building momentum for future improvement. By introducing a robust means of follow-up, you can improve the speed by which change is integrated, and ensure an effective cultural shift is both supported and nurtured.

This post was first reviewed in the Association for Manufacturing Excellence – Target Online Newsletter. The post was written by Shawn Casemore, President of Founder of Casemore and Company, in Ontario, Canada. Shawn can be contacted at www.casemoreandco.com.

To continue to learn more about LEAN, please contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury, LLP.

02/06/2014

The following post was first seen at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence – Target Online Newsletter – January 2014. The post was written by Shawn Casemore. To learn more about Mr. Casemore and this post please visit www.casemoreandco.com.

If a customer defines what value is, then whose responsibility is it to ensure that the value will be met? Like it or not, the reality is that not every customer knows or clearly understands what is in their best interest, not to mention that obtaining and even challenging customer views on what is value can seem a risky venture. The simplest path, and the one that most organizations take, is to obtain the feedback of sales relative to defining what customers value.

Well, I’m here to tell you that the easy path is not always the best path, and if customer value is not clearly understood to define customer’s wants and needs, then any changes to a product, service, process or activity can (and likely will) result in a less than valuable outcome.

Doubtful? Well, let’s consider LED lights for a moment. With a life span and electrical efficiency several times beyond any standard incandescent light, they appear to be just what the doctor ordered in a world where energy costs and sustainability are crucial to customers.

But there is a problem.

A standard LED light bulb, although energy efficient, does not emit much heat as compared to its incandescent cousin. That’s good news from an energy efficiency standpoint, as heat is wasted energy. But what if you relied on the light to actually provide heat? Have you noticed that LED lights on your house at Christmas do not melt snow that they come in contact with? Incandescent lights do. Big deal, right? Well what if this caused a safety concern? My uncle has driven transport trucks for more than 30 years, and during a recent discussion, he mentioned how useless the LED lights on cars and trucks actually are. They no longer melt snow to allow traffic to see taillights; an indirect benefit (or indirect value) of the older style candescent. This is a safety concern for anyone who drives in snowy terrain.

When applying lean concepts such as during a kaizen event, I always ask participants to consider both direct and indirect value to the customer. Direct value is the clear benefit the customer derives from the product, service or process. Indirect value includes any additional benefits customers enjoy, and might actually take for granted, that aren’t necessarily as evident, but if they were lost or removed would result in a significant reduction in perceived customer value and satisfaction.

To identify indirect value, consider the following questions when assessing products, services or processes:

What are the possible unforeseen benefits and/or value to the customer (both real and perceived)?

Is this unforeseen value clearly defined and apparent as part of the customer value proposition?

Do customers assess a degree of value to the presence or absence of this benefit or value?

What would be the impact of removing or reducing this value on customer satisfaction; on process effectiveness; on the customer experience?

To assess indirect value you have to think like a doctor. You have to ask your customers the right questions, put yourself in their shoes and then make a diagnosis based on customer feedback and your knowledge of what the customer expects.

So before you dismiss or revise a product, service or process, consider if there is any indirect value that your customers may not clearly define, but the absence of which would reduce the overall assessed value. By understanding indirect value, better decisions can be made which maximize the customer’s experience, improve efficiency and ensure that any changes initiated sustain over the long haul.

To learn more about the many topics of LEAN, please contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury, LLP.

01/23/2014

The following post was written by Mark S. Doman,a Pawley Professor in Lean Studies at Oakland University. Prior to joining Oakland University, he had 25 years of business experience with Ford and AT&T, where he held various executive positions in operations, human resources and legal. He is the author ofA New Lean Paradigm in Higher Education: A Case Study. Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 19 No. 3, 2011, “How Lean Ready Are You?” Target, Vol. 28 No. 2, 2012and “The Beginner’s Guide to Lean” series. His email address is doman@oakland.edu.

The end of the year is approaching and it is a good time to reflect on some lean “lessons learned” in 2013. My students have conducted eight lean workouts with various organizations this year. The student teams and their sponsor organizations learned a lot of lessons.

Five of the key lessons learned were:

1.Many root causes of manufacturing problems can be traced back to the beginning of the value stream — long before work starts on the factory floor. And in many cases, that’s the order entry process. During the fact-finding stage of its lean workout, a student team discovered that a primary reason for long lead times was an 8 percent error rate in the online customer order entry system. In this day and age, that is just unacceptable. Poka-yokes with auto-stops and corrections, standardized forms and checklists are tailor-made for online order entry systems. Companies need to understand that spending time and money at the front-end of a process will alleviate many downstream problems.

2. Get the facts. I mean really get the facts and they will lead you right to the root causes and solutions to your process problems. If you don’t, you will be chasing “old” answers that cost money and take you down dead-end paths. Most of the student teams want to speed through the problem-defining and current condition stages (i.e. the fact-finding stages) of their lean workouts and get right to the target condition and countermeasure stages (i.e. solution stages). I am constantly interrogating them, “What is the problem?” and “What do you know and what don’t you know?” about the current condition. Lean workouts or A3 Reports are iterative processes where you are constantly re-analyzing your fact-finding and solution stages as illustrated below:

3.Talk to the frontline employees (even if some are already on the team) at every stage of your lean workout. That means talk to the employees working on the process, talk to the employees supplying the process and particularly talk to the employees who are the customers of the process. One of the student teams thought they did a great root cause analysis that led them to some insightful countermeasures they were sure would “work wonderfully.” I asked them if they had talked to the frontline employees doing the work and what did they think. When the team finally did ask the employees what they thought about the “wonderful fixes,” the employees (who do the work every day, by the way) looked down at the floor, shuffled their feet and hemmed and hawed before one spoke up for the group. He told the team that one of the major causes was much more basic and had to do with the lack of standards and every employee doing the job differently. Oh well, back to the drawing board, but a great lesson learned!

4. Look for the “nickel fixes” first. That is what my father-in-law used to tell me and he was right! Don’t quick-twitch to costly computerization plans or capital-intensive solutions. Start first with simple solutions that make sense to everyone! It seems students, and many employees, want to jump at automation answers almost reflexively. I have to keep focusing them on lean countermeasures that are inexpensive (keep the controller on your side) and easy to implement. Try a paper kanban card system to solve an inventory control problem and pilot it in part of the plant to work the bugs out before spending the money automating and going plantwide.

5. Don’t forget about employee communication and training to build buy-in and support for your target condition. Employee communication and training backed by the leaders of the organization are a must for any implementation plan. Just because your team comes up with a great new lean target condition and absolutely ingenious countermeasures, doesn’t mean that the employees doing the work and/or supervising the work and/or running the plant will automatically change their behavior overnight. Changing ingrained adult behavior, let alone longstanding organizational habits, is extremely tough to do. As Dennis Pawley, the Chrysler lean pioneer, told my class, “To really obtain employee buy-in, my experience shows that for every hour leaders initially budget to communicate change, multiply that 10 times to effectively achieve explanation and acceptance of the change.”

To learn more about the many concepts of LEAN or to talk with a LEAN professional, please contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury, LLP.

01/09/2014

It’s no secret that the successful integration of lean results from management support and buy-in. I’m sure you’ve also heard that a “lean culture” must exist in order to sustain lean, but the question is, just what the heck is a “lean culture?” Well lean is often introduced at and through senior management, however to flourish and sustain, it must be carried forth by the people and for the people.

Every business initiative starts at the corporate level and gets transferred to the employees. If employees do not believe in or see how the initiative can help them, it will not be sustained, regardless of how many times leadership promotes or mentions the initiative.

How can you build sustained momentum through your employees? There are three distinct considerations.

What matters?

If you haven’t spent the time determining what matters to employees, then you will be hard pressed to engage them in the long-term value of lean. This can be as simple as a president or CEO sitting with a cross section of employees to find out why they enjoy working at their company, or it can be more holistic by engaging the entire group in a discussion around their value perceptions. Despite having assessed their company “why” with their employees, it wasn’t until my client’s CEO met with nearly a dozen employees that they gained a crystal clear understanding of why employees enjoyed working at the business. With this information, they were prepared to make the connection to the value of lean for employees.

Feedback

In every business, you can segment employees into three categories. Those who are content, those who are boisterous about their concerns and those who would be better off employed elsewhere. It’s unfortunate that most often, businesses focus the predominance of their effort and leadership time attempting to appease or reprimand the latter two groups. From a lean perspective, what they should be doing is focusing their energy on increasing the engagement of the former group — those that are somewhat content. To engage requires conversation and two-way communication. It is a means of ensuring other’s concerns or questions are heard and acted upon accordingly. By engaging content employees, we capture the engagement of a majority in the second group at minimum. As the saying goes, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Action

It’s not enough to communicate with employees, but something must be done with the information that is exchanged. Middle management often filters this information. To actually engage employees in any lean program, it’s important to break down barriers to communication, which means that middle management filters have to be identified and eliminated. Senior leaders have to continuously engage with employees to understand what their concerns are and how they are feeling about the progress being made to support them.

So you see, sustained momentum in lean is about more than culture; it is about building communication channels that facilitate two-way discussions, the results of which are action and progress. Anything less is simply another “flavor of the month” initiative and my guess is that’s exactly what you are trying to avoid.

This post was written by Shawn Casemore, founder and president of Casemore and Co. Incorporated, a consulting company helping organizations improve their operational performance. A recognized speaker and writer, you can learn more about Shawn and his company by visiting casemoreandco.com. To continue to learn more about the many concepts of LEAN or to talk with a consultant, please contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly & Asbury, LLP.

12/27/2013

If you want to make products that sell themselves, get your customersto help develop them on the front end. That's the gospel. But if you're a B2B supplier, don't think traditional VOC will hack it.

Here are some approaches you may want to consider building into your new product development process.

1. Kill the questionnaire. Do you like to see people come to your home with a survey? Do you have moreor even lesstime at work for surveys? Of course customers want to avoid such interviews.

2.Let customers lead. I recently did an interview where I asked for problems and ideal states. Period. I kept asking, "What else?" and let them take me wherever they wanted to go. We got 64 ideas. Some were absolute gems I wouldn't have thought of in several lifetimes.

3.Discusstheir "job." Don't set up the interview to discuss your product; it should be about some job customers want to accomplish. After the interview, you might address those "jobs" with a new or enhanced product, service, or business model.

4.Project your notes. Use a digital projectora VOC approach pioneered by AIMso customers can correct you in real time. When you do this, you'll notice the meeting becomes their show. You're simply a skilled and helpful facilitator.

5.Focus on outcomes. The primary objective of qualitative VOC is to uncover and understand as many possible "outcomes"desired customer end-resultsas possible. This is what customers love to talk about. Everything else is clutter to be minimized or eliminated.

6.Probeâ€¦ deeply. You don't truly understand a customer outcome until you know how to measure it. AIM has developed customer-engaging methods to let you replicate their experiences in your labs. Very powerful for competitive analysis and new product design.

7.Don't sell or solve. If you sell during a discovery interview, you'll destroy your credibility. If you solve during the interview, you'll jeopardize your intellectual property. Do either and you'll waste precious time better spent uncovering customer outcomes.

8.Get quantitative. If you do only qualitative VOC, you may hear only what you want to hear. You need unfiltered, unbiased customer ratings on importance and current satisfaction. High-importance, low-satisfaction outcomes are the only ones they'll pay you to improve.

9.Use triggers. Skilled brainstorming facilitators use trigger methods to generate about 30 percent more ideas. Your triggers can help customers think differently about their processes, trends, andnew ways to improve profitability. You get more outcomes, and customers get freehelp from a facilitator.

About the Author:

Dan Adams, president of Advanced Industrial Marketing, is all about B2B product development. His free e-book, Reinventing VOC for B2B: 12 New Rules from New Product Blueprinting, reveals a new way for B2B companies to think about VOC, and his 2008 hardcover book, New Product Blueprinting: The Handbook for B2B Organic Growth (www.newproductblueprinting.com), clarifies the "fuzzy front end" ofinnovation.

To learn more about LEAn and its many concepts contact the LEAN Accountants of McKonly and Asbury, LLP.